THE 


WAR  AND  SLAVERY; 


OS, 


V I O T O B Y 


OSLY  THROUGH 


EMANCIPATION. 

__ 


BOSTON: 

PUBLISHED  BY  K.  E.  WALLCUT, 
No.  221  WASHINGTON  STREET. 

1861. 


♦ 


VICTORY  ONLY  THROUGH  EMANCIPATION. 


It  is  undeniable  that  the  Southern  rebellion  is  a war  for 
slavery  through  the  overthrow  of  the  Federal  Government. 
Its  antecedents,  its  inception,  the  speeches  and  official  papers 
of  Davis  and  Stephens,  its  history  thus  far,  all  show  it. 
Slavery  is  not  only  the  object  of  the  rebellion,  but  it  is  the 
right  arm  of  its  strength.  The  slaves,  by  their  toil,  furnish 
the  sinews  of  the  war  the  rebels  are  waging.  Without  their 
labor,  they  could  not  carry  forward  their  project.  The  slaves 
not  only  till  their  soil  and  produce  their  supplies,  but  they 
build  their  fortifications,  strengthen  their  columns,  perform 
the  menial  service  of  their  camps,  and  in  a thousand  ways 
contribute  to  their  power,  comfort  and  success.  No  matter 
how  many  men  they  put  into  the  field,  they  do  not  weaken 
their  agricultural  force,  for  the  whites  do  not  labor,  but 
almost  every  man  who  enters  the  Northern  army  is  taken 
from  some  department  of  productive  labor,  and,  by  so  much, 
diminishes  our  resources  for  conducting  the  war. 

If  this  rebellion,  therefore,  is  to  be  put  down,  it  will  be 
found  necessary  to  strike  the  decisive  blow  at  the  vulnerable 
and  vital  point  to  be  found  in  the  system  of  slavery.  Not 
only  is  this  necessary  to  weaken  the  power  of  the.  rebels,  but, 
until  it  is  done,  there  cannot  be  that  unity,  enthusiasm  and 
strength  in  our  own  effort  that  is  equal  to  the  task  we  have 
in  hand  to  accomplish.  There  has  always  been  a large  class 
at  the  North  who  have  believed  it  to  be  the  duty  of  the  gov- 
ernment, at  all  times,  to  suppress  slavery.  To  this  class, 
tens  of  thousands  have  recently  been  added,  who,  while  they 
have  had  scruples  as  to  the  right  of  the  government  to  do  it 
before,  believe  it  to  be  both  its  right  and  duty  to  do  it  now. 


UNIVERSITY  OF 
ILLINOIS  LIBRARY 
AT  URBANA-CHAMRAIGN 


4 


VICTORY  ONLY  THROUGH  EMANCIPATION. 


They  know  that  whatever  protection  the  slaveholders  might 
claim  for  their  institution  while  loyal  to  the  Constitution, 
now  that  they  have  rebelled  against  that  Constitution , the 
government  is  not  only  absolved  from  eve*y  obligation  to 
protect  it,  but  is  bound  by  its  duty  to  the  imperilled  nation- 
ality-— to  say  nothing  here  of  its  duty  to  the  poor  slaves 
themselves— to  put  an  end  to  the  curse  and  scourge  at  once 
and  for  ever.  When,  therefore,  the  government  rises  to  the 
level  of  this  now  almost  universal  feeling  of  the  people,  it 
will  call  out  that  unity  of  effort  and  overwhelming  enthusi- 
asm that  will  sweep  like  an  avalanche  of  power  against  the 
rebel  forces,  and  annihilate  their  strength  and  scatter  them 
like  chaff  before  the  whirlwind,  while  a mighty  phalanx  of 
eight  hundred  thousand  emancipated  and  able-bodied  bondmen 
would  meet  them  in  the  rear  to  finish  the  glorious  victory. 
But  the  dallying  policy  of  the  government  on  this  subject 
causes  the  spirit  of  the  people  to  flag  in  the  contest,  while  the 
moral  support  of  England,  France,  and  other  European  gov- 
ernments is  well  nigh  lost  to  our  cause,  but  which  a bold  and 
decisive  measure  of  emancipation  would  fully  and  effectually 
secure.  Can  we  hope  to  succeed  in  our  struggle  without 
evoking  the  highest  type  of  the  heroic  endeavor  of  the  peo- 
ple? without  calling  to  our  side  the  moral  force  of  the 
nations  ? without  rallying  the  slaves  themselves  to  the  stand- 
ard of  the  Union  and  Freedom  ? If  it  were  possible  to  gain 
a bare  victory  over  the  rebel  forces,  and  plant  our  standard 
once  more  on  our  stolen  forts  and  arsenals,  and  yet  leave 
slavery  untouched  and  the  slaveholding  oligarchy  in  posses- 
sion of  its  former  power,  its  insolence  and  domination  and 
the  “ irrepressible  conflict  ” would  still  continue,  and  leave  us 
without  any  substantial  victory  or  abiding  peace,  ever  and 
anon  to  be  torn  by  political  convulsions,  Kansas  raids  and 
slaveholding  lynchings  and  outrages,  until  the  flames  of  civil 
war  become  again  enkindled,  and  we  resort  once  more  to  the 
arbitrament  of  the  sword,  with  this  same  question  confronting 
ns  for  a settlement.  So  much  for  the  military  and  political 
reasons  for  emancipation. 

But  there  is  other  and  higher  reason  to  doubt  even  the 
temporary  success  of  our  arms,  while  we  endeavor  to  fight 
rebellion  and  at  the  same  time  preserve  for  the  rebel  South 
their  darling  institution — while  we  profess  to  be  fighting  for 


) 

VICTORY  ONLY  THROUGH  EMANCIPATION.  5 

civilization,  and  yet  shield  the  sternest  despotism  and  the 
vilest  barbarism  the  world  has  ever  known.  That  higher 
reason  is  found  in  the  fact,  that  God  still  governs  this  world; 
and  he  has  said, '“At  what  instant  I shall  speak  concerning  a 
nation  to  build  and  to  plant  it,  if  it  do  evil  in  my  sight,  that 
it  obey  not  my  voice,  then  I will  repent  of  the  good  where- 
with I said  I would  benefit  them,  and  I will  pluck  them  up 
and  destroy  them.”  He  has  pledged  himself  to  the  cause  of 
the  oppressed,  to  “ hear  their  cry,”  and  to  “ break  in  pieces 
the  oppressor.”  Now,  while  the  Federal  Government  holds 
its  present  attitude  on  the  subject  of  slavery,  it  is  as  really 
the  oppressor  as  the  rebel  South,  and  God  will  hold  us  to  the 
responsibility,  and  cause  us  to  share  the  penalties  of  the  trans- 
gression. The  government  has  admitted  the  right  of  slavery 
in  the  States  ; has  protected  the  inter-State  slave  trade ; has 
assumed  the  duty  of  returning  fugitives,  and  has  ever  held 
itself  ready  to  quell  the  efforts  of  the  slaves  to  throw  off 
their  bondage ; and  even  now,  its  generals,  fighting  for  the 
government  which  slavery  is  seeking  to  destroy,  pledge  them- 
selves beforehand  to  “ put  down  slave  insurrections  with  an 
iron  handy  Now,  as  before  God,  though  constitutional  ob- 
ligations were  piled  heaven  high,  no  government  could  be 
justified  in  doing  these  things,  for  His  authority  is  supreme 
for  governments  as  well  as  for  individuals,  and  the  nation 
that  discards  this  principle  and  proceeds  to  acts  of  tyranny 
and  injustice  from  a fancied  political  necessity,  is  on  the 
high  road  to  destruction,  and,  without  repentance,  its  doom  is 
inevitable. 

The  history  of  all  oppressive  governments  in  the  past 
shows  that  our  statement  is  not  the  utterance  of  fanaticism. 
Where  is  mighty  Babylon,  with  her  “ golden  cities,”  her 
magnificent  palaces,  her  “hanging  gardens,”  and  boundless 
glory  and  wealth  ? And  where  is  rich  and  luxurious  Per- 
sia, with  her  “ hundred  and  twenty-seven  provinces,”  stretch- 
ing “ from  India  over  to  Ethiopia,”  and  commanding  armies 
of  millions  ? And  warlike  Greece,  famed  for  her  world-wide 
conquests  ? And  iron-booted  and  brazen-helmeted  Home, 
with  her  millions  of  slaves,  symbolized  in  the  vision  of  the 
old  prophet  by  a monster  beast,  “ dreadful  and  terrible,  hav- 
ing great  iron  teeth,  devouring  and  breaking  in  pieces,-  and 
stamping  the  residue  with  his  feet,”  where  is  she?  And 


6 Victory  only  through  emancipation. 

Egypt,  With  her  atheistic  King,  who  said,  “Who  is  the  Lord 
that  I should  obey  his  voice  to  let  Israel  go?”  and  then 
commanded  the  bondmen  “ back  to  their  burdens” — where 
is  she  ? Where  are  they  all  ? In  the  language  of  another 
of  the  old  Seers,  “They  have  all  gone  down  to  hell  with 
their  weapons  of  war,  with  their  iniquities  upon  their  bones, 
though  they  were  the  terror  of  the  mighty  in  the  land  of  the 
living.”  And  wherefore  are  they  fallen?  They  were  mur- 
derous and  oppressive  governments — “ they  destroyed  their 
land  and  slew  their  people,”  and  according  to  the  decree  of 
the  Almighty,  He  has  “swept  them  with  the  besom  of  de- 
struction.” And  shall  the  American  government,  persever- 
ing in  its  oppression  of  millions  of  its  people,  constitute  the 
solitary  exception  in  the  history  of  the  world  of  a nation 
escaping  the  just  penalty  of  its  deeds  ? Not  till  the  fixed 
laws  of  God  are  abolished,  and  His  throne  shall  take  the  side 
of  the  oppressor. 

Therefore,  though  the  Constitution  should  forbid  emancipa- 
tion, it  should  nevertheless  be  done.  But  it  does  not  forbid, 
it  demands  it.  It  was  “ordained  to  establish  justice,  and 
secure  the  blessings  of  liberty.”  But  apart  from  this,  no 
one  has  attempted  to  deny  the  right  of  the  government,  now 
in  a state  of  war  for  its  very  existence,  to  abolish  slavery  as 
a means  of  preserving  that  existence.  Neither  the  Presi- 
dent, nor  Congress,  nor  the  Judiciary  has  gainsay ed  this 
doctrine.  If,  therefore,  the  government  fails  now  to  act, 
where  its  duty  is  clear  and  its  right  undisputed,  it  must  be 
from  the  most  cowardly  or  jesuitical  policy,  involving  the 
most  gratuitous,  and,  therefore,  the  wickedest  complicity  with 
the  crime  of  slaveholding.  We  now  have  an  opportunity 
thrust  upon  us,  in  the  providence  of  God  — that  we  may  be 
without  the  shadow  of  an  excuse  for  not  doing  it — to 
redeem  the  oath,  made  eighty-five  years  ago,  that,  if  God 
would  give  us  victory  over  our  enemy,  we  would  found  a 
government  on  the  doctrine  declared  to  be  “ self-evident,” 
that  “God  has  created  all  men  equal,  and  endowed  them  with 
certain  inalienable  rights,  among  which  are  life,  liberty  and 
the  pursuit  of  happiness.”  I say  we  made  oath  to  do  this, 
for  when  we  put  forth  the  Declaration  and  entered  upon  the 
struggle  to  make  it  good,  we  “ appealed  to  the  Searcher  of 
hearts  for  the  rectitude  of  our  intentions .”  Not  having  ful- 


. } 

VICTORY  ONLY  THROUGH  EMANCIPATION.  7 

filled  this  pledge,  so  solemnly  made,  we  stand  before  God  a 
perjured  nation  to-day.  For  eighty-five  years  we  have  en- 
deavored to  cement  the  Union  with  the  blood  of  the  slaves, 
to  bind  it  together  by  laws  for  their  capture  and  return  to 
bondage,  and  to  fortify  it  with  compromises,  leaving  our  oath 
unaccomplished ; and  the  “ Searcher  of  hearts  ” has  seen  it. 
Now  behold  the  retribution  ! These  bloody  sacrifices  to  the 
Slave  Power  have  whetted  its  appetite  for  dominion  and 
cruelty,  and  more  blood,  and  now  it  seeks  to  satiate  itself  by 
slaughtering  the  very  people  who  have  officiated  at  its  altar 
in  these  bloody  rites ; not  now  to  cement  the  Union,  but  in 
diabolical  effort  to  destroy  it  for  ever.  If  we  are  not  a 
nation  of  atheists,  how  can  we  hope  for  success  in  this  war 
until  we  free  our  soul  of  perjury  by  “ establishing  justice  and 
bidding  the  oppressed  go  free  ” ? The  war,  itself,  is  a retri- 
bution for  our  complicity  with  slavery.  By  compromise  and 
concession  we  have  strengthened  the  Slave  Power,  and  now  it 
demands  supreme  sovereignty,  and  lays  hold  of  conspiracy 
and  treason  to  compass  its  ends.  This  is  God’s  law  of  com- 
pensation. We  have  “sown  the  wind,”  and  now  we  “reap 
the  whirlwind.” 

The  loyal  souls  who  take  this  view  of  the  case,  though  they 
mourn  over  the  loss  of  brave  men  slaughtered  at  Big  Bethels 
and  Bull  Buns,  and  hide  their  faces  in  shame  at  the  defeat 
and  disgrace  of  our  arms,  yet  they  accept  it  all  as  a divine 
chastisement  of  the  nation,  and  they  will  expect  disaster  upon 
disaster  until  the  National  Government,  clothed  as  it  is  with 
national  responsibilities  towards  all  its  subjects,  shall  “ pro- 
claim liberty  throughout  all  the  land,  unto  all  the  in- 
habitants thereof.”  But  instead  of  doing  this,  in  the  very 
hour  of  the  nation’s  defeat,  disgrace  and  great  calamity,  in 
which  the  voice  of  the  Almighty  seemed  as  audible  as  when 
He  spoke  in  the  “ tempest  and  thunderings  ” of  Sinai,  Con- 
gress proceeds  to  declare  “that  the  war  is  not  for  the  over- 
throw of  the  institution  of  any  State,”  meaning  thereby  slave- 
ry. One  would  have  thought  that  if  the  bombardment  of 
Sumter,  the  massacres  of  Big  Bethel  and  Vienna,  and  the 
assassinations  of  Baltimore,  were  not  enough  to  prevent  fur- 
ther compromises,  at  least  the  enemy’s  cannon  of  Bull  Bun 
and  the  rebel  barbarities  of  that  battle  scene  would  have 
silenced  the  voice  of  concession  and  called  forth  stern  meas** 


! 


8 VICTORY  ONLY  THROUGH  EMANCIPATION. 

■ares  of  retribution  against  that  iniquitous  system  that  had 
hatched  ;the  foul  treason  into  existence  and  made  strong  the 
conspirators  for  their  work  of  destruction  and  overthrow. 

The  rebellion  is  now  so  formidable,  so  defiant,  so  murderous 
in  its  character,  that  all  attempts  at  conciliation  are  not  only 
useless,  but  are  actually  affording  aid  and  comfort  to  the  foe, 
and  placing  the  government  in  the  ridiculous  posture  of  ex- 
erting itself  against  its  own  cause.  This  is  plainly  a war  of 
slavery  against  freedom,  of  a bloated  aristocracy  against  the 
equal  rights  and  dignity  of  the  poor  and  laboring  many,  and 
the  government  should  boldly  meet  the  enemy  on  his  own 
issue,  and  strike  for  the  freedom  of  all ; restore  the  national 
sovereignty  wherever  the  slave  oligarchy  has  caused  it  to  trail 
in  the  dust.  How  long  shall  we  by  concessions  and  half- 
measures weaken  our  own  cause  only  to  provoke  the  contempt 
of  our  foe  ? Strike,  in  the  name  of  God,  at  his  vulnerable 
point,  free  the  slaves  and  let  them  swell  the  army  of  freedom, 
and  thus  save  the  lives  of  our  brave  men,  and  prevent  the 
utter  bankruptcy  of  the  people,  by  bringing  the  war  to  a 
speedy  and  triumphal  close.  All  the  blood  and  treasure  that 
are  expended,  that  emancipation  would  save,  the  government 
is  responsible  for.  Dare  it  take  this  responsibility  any 
longer  ? Had  it  rather  welcome  bloody  battles,  disgraceful 
and  ruinous  defeats,  and  the  lamentation  and  mourning  of 
the  people,  than  to  lay  its  crushing  hand  upon  that  accursed 
thing,  named  human  slavery  ? If  so,  God  will  give  us  battle, 
defeat  and  mourning  to  our  full.  North  and  South  will  both 
suffer  until  the  one  great  object  for  which  God  means  the  war 
is  accomplished — the  freedom  of  the  enslaved. 


New  York,  August  28th,  1861. 


